Legacy Of Slade
by Rever76
Summary: This about Slade's attempt to return and a former apprentice of his trying to prevent it with the aid of Terra and Titans. But there lies many Issues in his past.... Please R
1. Prologue Graduation

Teen Titans Fan Fiction **"Legacy of Slade"**

**Teaser:**

In dark cavern deep under the city two figures were holding each other.

Around them the cavern had opened up and now lava was slowly filling the chamber.

Both were of equal height, one was green and wore a black and purple skin suit. His friends called him Beast Boy, referring to his ability to change into any animal; fish, mammals, birds, even extinct dinosaurs and alien creatures. The other was a girl with long blonde hair named Terra; she wore unique body armour, which linked, into her nerve system, giving control of her awesome power to manipulate and control rock and soil to her one-time master, a criminal, named Slade.

Slade had only just a few minutes ago been hurled into the lava. All that was left was Slade's mask, slowly sinking below the lava. Half orange with an eyehole cut into it, the other half was completely black.

Unknown to Beast Boy, Terra and the other Teen Titans, when Slade fell into the lava, a small machine built into his mask, detected abnormal life signs coming from the wearer. The signs were consist with severe injuries that would lead to death. Following a program that the machine had been specifically made to follow, it began to broadcast a simple radio signal, capable of penetrating even the deepest underground bunker with even the most sophisticated electronic countermeasures.

Many, many, miles away in an underground bunker filled with electronic security and spread under several mountains, a computer, the only computer in the whole facility that had been activated during the past few years, picked up the signal. And in precisely .076 seconds of receiving the signal it wasn't the only computer that was active…

**Prologue**

**Part 1 Graduation**

Incident minus 24 days 6 hours 3 minutes

'Students of the Hive Academy for exceptional young people, this year has been a terrible year!' shouted a man standing on a podium facing an audience of young students, each trained in all the necessary skills required to be a super-villain, forging a criminal empire and attempting to rule the entire world.

The man on the podium continued 'we have no students graduating with honours this year, or for that matter any students graduating at all. This school has the best facilities, the best teachers, the best curricular. And the stupidest pieces of dog poo for students. Do you hear ME?" he said, as he reached the end of the speech, his skin started to glow blue and a pair of bat-like wings unfolded from under the man's robe.

"Yes Vice-principal Marntok the Mighty." All the students chorused at once.

'The Principal himself is so disgusted, that he's going to address you all now…'

Every single student started gossiping, no one had ever heard of the principal speaking to the whole student body, only a few glimpses of the current principal is all that students would get, unless they were being punished, and even then they were sworn never to tell anybody, not even the teachers at the academy about what had happened. Marntok The Mighty stood down from the podium and sat on a chair against the back wall.

Almost immediately a hexagon shaped door opened in the wall behind the podium. A figure walked through the door in a black robe, with a hood completely concealing his face. As he walked to the podium the door silently, slid shut behind him. Every step he took echoed in the silence of the auditorium. All eyes were watching him. Fear was everywhere.

'As the vice-principal just said, you're all terrible students. I've invited you into this school; I've sheltered you, taught you to control your powers. Role-modelled for you. Developed sophisticated technology to aid you. AND YOU REPAY ME WITH THIS!' the principal shouted.

'All I've done for you dunder heads and yet you still fail even the most basic exams.' In the auditorium, fear settled into the hearts of all present, many of the students were focusing their attention onto preventing any further embarrassment from stained clothing, so were several of the teachers.

'In order for you to comprehend the education I gave you and that you then flushed down the toilet I'm going to reveal a little about my self…' the figure said, he then raised both his hands to his hood and slowly, ceremonially pulled the hood back to reveal his head.

The teachers and students gasped as one. Even the Vice-principal was shocked.

When the principal's hands were by his side, his head was fully visible.

It was protected by a helmet, which surrounded his entire head.

The face was split in half. The left side was orange; it had an eyehole cut into it. The other side was black and had no hole for the Principal's right eye. In the minds of the students, one thought occurred: "How?"

'And before you start panicking, let me answer the most obvious questions first. I am Slade, and yes I did survive the Teen titans, how, because I used my training, the same training that you've all chosen to ignore.' He yelled to the assembled crowd.

Clapping came from the back of the room, every single person, including Slade turned to see the cause of the disturbance.

'Well done former master…' said a sarcastic voice. Walking from the back of the room a tall pale skinned boy strode, with all the arrogance of a tomcat. 'I see that nasty lava flow didn't keep you down,' he commented. The crowd parted around, all of the students had the good sense to give him a wide berth. The academy's faculty just stared, open-mouthed.

'Ahh, a former student of mine who actually knows the value of the education I gave him,' said Slade. Heads were now looking from Slade on the Podium and the newcomer, standing in the middle of the floor with his hands in the pockets of a long grey trench coat.

'I see you've got yourself I nice school here, thought I'd drop by see how things a going,' replied the boy. 'Thought I'd see if you were going to keep your promise,' he continued.

'I think I will,' said Slade.

Pointing at the newcomer he announced, 'Any body who can kill him graduates and will be my new apprentice!'

Immediately every student took up a fighting stance, charged up whatever energy they used, armed whatever weapons they had and slowly started advancing on the boy.

With a smile not normally seen on people about to be killed, the boy pulled a device out of his coat, brandishing it like a weapon. It looked like a mobile phone, but instead of an earpiece there was a big red button. To anyone with experience with military explosives it was fairly obvious that it was a makeshift remote detonation device, built so the user didn't have to sit at a wire connection, allowing them to detonate explosives that had been tuned to a certain frequency.

One of the Hive students, a girl with pink hair and pink eyes, raised her hand and pointed at the device, pink waves flew from her hand, the waves hit the remote detonator, it sparked and the boy dropped it.

The detonator hit the floor and shattered.

'Bad luck for you,' said the girl, her name was Jinx, and she had the power to make bad luck affect her adversaries.

The students of Hive academy advanced on him…


	2. Prologue Buried Not So Alive

Prologue part 2

The boy in the grey coat laughs. 'You really think that was the detonator? That was the jamming device preventing a beacon I planted in the centre of this facility from signalling to the Police and the Titans.' He looks at his watch. 'In three, no two minutes Titans East and the cops will be through your security systems, as I already sent them the email with your access codes five minutes ago.' He shouted. Throwing his head back he laughed again. The encroaching mob faltered in their advance. Some just gritted their teeth and kept their attack stance, others looked to Slade for guidance.

'He's bluffing. If the cops or the titans find him here they'll execute him or jail him permanently. He's lying.' said Slade.

The students this time resumed their advance

The boy pulls out another electronic device, identical to the on the ground. And presses the button, a light on the side glows green a split second before a bolt of energy destroys it.

'That on the other hand was a remote detonator.' He said before laughing again, 'Slade is right you guys are dunder heads.' In the background a rumbling could be heard. Suddenly warning klaxons were sounding, most of the students and staff fled the chamber, as the rumbling continued. Those that stayed were the ones smart enough to know that the mysterious intruder, Slade's former pupil had planned an escape, which they fully intended to use.

'Scaring children are we, Eyclone? You were far bloodier when you executed your brother Alpharius.' commented Slade. 'Al got what was coming for him, you ordered it. But what he got is gonna' be paradise compared to what I'm going to do to you and the others.' Eyclone replied.

Glancing at the fleeing mob and at the few who had chosen to remain in the auditorium, keeping close to the exits Slade shrugged, he jumped the podium in a single bound, landing ten feet short of his former pupil.

'You know what they say, if you want anything done you've gotta do it yourself' with that Slade charged Eyclone. Eyclone shifted into a combat stance and readied himself for impact. Slade had halved the distance between them in split second, before his right fist could connect with Eyclone's body, Eyclone simply sidestepped and reached out with his right hand and grabbed Slade by the neck. Wrapping his other arm around Slade he tried to flip Slade, But Slade shifted in Eyclone's grip and landed on his feet. Eyclone's grip on Slade had been reversed and now Eyclone was forced to twist himself awkwardly to get out of Slade's throw. Landing on his back a few feet away, Eyclone jumped to his feet and returned to his fighting stance. This time Eyclone charged Slade this time, his right fist connected with Slade's gut, cracking the metal armour. Slade lashed out with his left knee, ramming straight into Eyclone's groin. Eyclone staggered back hunched, Slade came at with his left fist, missing Eyclone's head by the fraction of a hair.

"You can't stop us now Eyclone. Our plans are closer to fruition then you think." Taunted Slade. Eyclone just grunted with his teeth clenched, he advanced on Slade and they engaged in fisticuffs.

Slade was wining, but that wasn't what was on Eyclone's mind.

NINE 

Slade landed a devastating right punch to the left side of Eyclone's head; the blow was definitely going to leave a black eye.

EIGHT 

Eyclone's left hook left a crack on the black side of Slade's mask.

SEVEN 

Slade's knee once again made contact with Eyclone's most sensitive region, but this time he held his ground.

SIX 

Eyclone sidestepped one of Slade's punches and elbowed in the kidneys with enough power to force him back a step.

FIVE 

Slade landed another devastating punch, badly bruising Eyclone's left eye.

FOUR 

Slade ducked under one of Eyclone's punches and landed one of his own on Eyclone's nose.

THREE 

Slade is forcing Eyclone back with the sheer fury of his blows; Eyclone can barely dodge with eyes swollen and his nose streaming with blood.

TWO 

Slade's uppercut throws Eyclone's head back, almost fast enough to break it. Eyclone backs of nearly blind from the swelling and the blood from small cuts all of his head and almost numb to everything bar the pain, he backs off from Slade

ONE 

Slade is standing over Eyclone. Eyclone is down, on the ground. His face cracks into a smile…

_ZERO _

Special demolition explosives that were planted in the top of room detonate…

**BOOM!**

The room starts to shake; a huge piece of rock falls to the floor below. Its shadow is wide and it completely covers the two figures standing alone in the centre of the room. Slade looks up to see the giant rock coming towards, unstoppable in it's descent. 'Funny I never figured you for a martyr.' He comments to the prone figure. He turns and tries to outrun the indoor meteor. Eyclone jumps to his feet, he looks up to the large rock above him, following the laws of gravity. He smiles and stands there. When the hard rock is just a foot above his head, his shape seems to flicker and then suddenly all that's left is a cloud of grey smoke.

**CCCCRRRRRAAAAASSSSHHHHHH!**

The falling rock hits the ground and crushes everything under it, including the lower half of Slade. The hole where it had been is now open to the sky and police in SWAT uniforms, with abseiling gear are clustering around it readying their gear to make a descent through the newly made access shaft. Rock dust billows like smoke and a cloud of it starts to spin in front of Slade's eyes. When it reaches top speed it suddenly changes into Eyclone.

'Ahhh, your mist form, I should've known you'd use that as part of your escape plan.' Slade said weakly. Eyclone simply reached behind Slade's head and felt around till he found a button and pressed it. Slade stopped moving. Yanking hard on Slade's neck, he removed his entire head. A few wires dangled underneath, sparks jumped from the stump where the interface circuits had connected with the head. The real Slade was of course dead, but this android was one of many, that were now active, some five months after Slade's death. Slinging the robot's head over his shoulder he once again became a cloud of smoke and mist and flew out of the hole, ignored by the assembled police.

Cruising around the bottom of the crater, Bumble Bee located a body lying half buried in the rubble. When she got closer, she noticed that it was the headless body of some sort of robot. Reaching down the exposed throat she removed a small circuit board the width of her thumb puzzled she turned it over looking for any symbols of who manufactured it. When she saw the strange S shape on the bottom she almost dropped it in surprise. 'It's not possible. The others killed him ages ago, he couldn't have survived the lava.' She gasped, she signalled to the other members of Titans East. They assembled around her, showing them the symbol on the circuit board they all showed expressions of shock and disbelief. It wasn't possible; no one can survive falling into a lava flow.


	3. Prologue Need For Speed

Part 2 Need for Speed

Incident minus 20 days 2hours 36 minutes

A figure hunched in the shadows of the rooftop. The light of the moon obscured by dark clouds that filled the sky. In the silence on the rooftop, the figured surveyed the urban landscape of Steel City, like a hunter, noting all the best areas to conceal or easily accessible escape routes.

In the distance sirens wailed, people went about their nightly business and the daily crime rate escalating faster then the disappearance of the last rays of sunshine.

Despite all this the figure was silent, waiting.

Waiting for the most important phone call.

"BEEP BEEP BEEP!" trilled a mobile phone.

In the silence the figure reached inside the folds of large coat and withdrew a cell phone. Pressing the glowing green button and stepping out of the shadows, a tall boy, a teenager dressed in a long grey trench coat, with black boots, metal plates on the toes. The boots stretched almost up to his knees with buckles all the way to the top. Tucked into these boots was a pair of ragged jungle camouflage pants patched up with olive green and dark grey patches. Black hair with blonde streaks just flopped over his head, unkempt, but clean from dirt and muck. 'Yeah, go ahead' he said into the phone. 'I found those people you asked me to find. They must be loaded with cash, they've got a warehouse on the south side of the city, fully wired up with best shit, I mean not even rat could get in there without lighting the place up.' said the panicky voice on the other end of the phone. 'Johnny calm down. I left all the files and whatnot in the agreed mailbox; you can go and collect it now. Sheesh why are you so uptight, for a cop who supposedly deals with perps' everyday you're nervous like a cat in a dog pound, lighten up.' Eyclone replied calmly. 'You're a cold bastard. You know that if those files see the light of day I'll lose me job and the divorce.' Johnny the cop said with touch of spite. 'Just give me the address will 'ya, then you'll never hear or see me again, kaput, gone.' Eyclone told, once again with that nonchalant manner. Johnny told him, Eyclone wrote it down even though he'd memorised the moment Johnny had told him.

Johnny was a cop and not a good cop either. He wasn't corrupt or taking bribes, he just wasn't good at his job. He actually believed that Eyclone had dirt on him without proof of it. The truth was Eyclone didn't have any dirt; Johnny had never done anything wrong.

One of the many skills passed onto him by Slade was the ability to read people, not their thoughts but their personality, this in turn could lead to not reading their mind but predicting their actions and reactions. He was also taught how to use this to manipulate people. Johnny had never done anything wrong, he was just the only cop in Steel City with the security access that Eyclone could manipulate without too much effort. When Johnny got to the agreed drop point all he would find is 20 grand that he deserved for helping Eyclone out, and a few photos of his wife and her lawyer, buying drugs from a dealer, taken a month before had she filed for divorce. Eyclone figured Johnny deserved a prize.

When Johnny hung up Eyclone punched a few buttons on the phone's keypad. A whirring sound emanated from the phone. Being custom built from various mobile phones and a PDA, Eyclone's phone had certain functions, It was capable of creating dummy numbers that a person could call and reach the phone, but when Eyclone wanted to, the phone could destroy all record of the phone number, or graft it onto another number so that anybody calling it would end up calling a 1900 number thinking they were calling a cell phone. It was also secure from phone hacking and if anybody had bugged the line the phone could jam the bug with meaningless static while the conversation was taking place. He was proud of his phone.

Walking to the edge of the building Eyclone took out a map of Steel City. He marked on the map his current location, and made a circle around the coordinates of the warehouse. Drawing line between the two places, he started to plan, in his head he was calculating distances and times. When he'd done that he folded up the map, tucked it into a pocket of his coat. Looking over the edge of the building, he turned walked to the centre of the building turning to face the same edge he began his run up. Pumping his arms he closed the gap between himself and the ledge until he was one the ledge, and without breaking stride leapt into the nigh air.

His legs still making running movements, his arms still pumping. He let out cry of joy. 'Wooo-Hoooo!' Before dissolving into a dark mist.

Flying fast through the city, he swerved, weaved and dodged his way around the buildings, following the course he'd planned out, the one that would take him to the warehouse and his target.

Arriving at the perimeter of the warehouse, he didn't materialize. That would set off the sensors and that was bad. At a loading dock for the warehouse, a couple of thugs were hauling barrels onto a large semi-trailer. The barrels had the High Explosive sticker on them and the men handling them were being extra cautious.

'Hurry up and finish this, I was due to leave half an hour ago,' came a sinister voice from inside the warehouse, walking through the raised Rolla door stepped a man wearing the same body armour as Slade, But he was not Slade, it was another android, just like the one that had become the principal of the Hive academy, this one too was planning something.

Passing through the chain link fence like the cloud that he was Eyclone approached the truck slowly, keeping low to the ground. Mist was coming of the bay so this aided him in his infiltration. Around the other side of the cab a figure climbed into the cab of the truck, Eyclone couldn't see who the person was, but he'd find out once the truck hit the highway. Eyclone approached the back of the cab and hovered there between the truck and the trailer waiting. On the ground next to the truck a toolbox lay open, with it's contents scattered inside and around it, checking his surroundings, he materialized unseen and picked up a big spanner, feeling the weight of it he put it into one of the many pockets of his coat, he bent down and picked up a few other tools, two pairs of wire cutters, an adjustable screwdriver and three other wrenches that were similar in weight. In that mind of his, a lot more options and outcomes played out, the majority were quite favourable. As he picked up the tools and adjusted his coat, he didn't know he was being watched from the rear view mirrors. Inside the cab a single brown eye observed his actions and his shift to mist form.

The were a few clangs and shouts from the loading dock, the noise of a Rolla door closing and the footsteps of men departing, and barely perceivably over these noises and the noises of the city, the footsteps of a person trained in stalking. The Slade-bot passed the area Eyclone was hiding in. He looked around not seeing anything it kept on walking and climbed into the empty side of the cab. With tat the engine started, its two official passengers unawares of an uninvited guest.

When the truck hit the highway, Eyclone made his move. Materializing between the cab and the trailer, he climbed up onto the roof of the trailer, walking backwards and maintaining his balance. He stopped at the appropriate distance. He drew one of the wrenches he'd acquired and threw it at the rear view mirror on the passenger side. His plan was simple, lure the android out onto the trailer, dispose of him and then get to the cab, neutralise the driver and then, park the truck in front of a cop station, or somewhere, where something could be done about the explosives. It was simple and incredibly dangerous, but Eyclone had done this before, except without so much explosives and he was working with Slade at the time, not against a robot decoy of Slade.

The heavy spanner scythed through the air and smashed the mirror; glass fell to the rushing road below. The truck took a herd corner and pulled onto the highway. There were plentiful cars on the highway, if the truck crashed now, it kill a lot of innocents. Eyclone could not let that happen. The passenger door opened and leaning out of it was the Slade-bot. It ripped the door off its hinges; he hurled one handed at Eyclone's head. Eyclone ducked the projectile and hurled the last two wrenches at the robot. The first one missed, but the second one left a crack on the chest plate of android.

'You know I almost felt that, but you're too weak as always. You need to plan for all events, like a kamikaze decoy.' It said.

The Slade bot jumped high into the air and drew its first back, to crush Eyclone into the roof of the trailer. Just before the fatal blow landed, Eyclone shifted to mist-form and as a cloud moved towards the front of the truck, reforming behind the Slade bot, his right leg halfway through the arc of a roundhouse kick aimed at the decoy's head. The impacted with a crunch, and the robot turned, looking like it was going to fall over, when it some how regained balance and rolled away form Eyclone.

'Surely you're not going to kill before I show you my little surprise?' As it said this, a line dividing the face in half lengthwise appeared, it slowly got larger and the two halves began to move back revealing the circuitry inside and a digital clock with a fast countdown being displayed. Then came a whirring sound and the chest split open revealing a large block of C4 explosive putty and several detonators arrayed around it. 'Do you know what were standing on?' it continued '40 tonnes of liquid oxygen. One small knock and the whole road goes up. Do you know how many would die from this?' Eyclone growled and bared his teeth in a grimace.

'Precisely 104.67 innocent people that you seem to care about.' The robot said with a nonchalant tone. Shrugging it said 'I don't care, this is my purpose and I will fulfil it.'

Then suddenly out of the night sky blue spotlight highlighted the two figures.

"Put Down Your Weapons And Stop The Vehicle!" a mega phoned voice commanded from above. 'He said put down your weapons, like either of us have needed to rely on such things.' The robot taunted. Gritting his teeth Eyclone charged at Slade, determined to immobilize him and disarm the bomb.

Slade swung with is right fist at the oncoming Eyclone; Eyclone ducked the blow and reached for the exposed compartment. Getting a grip on one of the sides he wrenched open reaching for the C4 he was knocked back by a blow from the robot. Falling backwards, Eyclone felt his head smack against the corner of the roof. The light from the police helicopter blinded him for a few seconds, and in the distance he could here the wail of police sirens. Not good. Cops would want to stop the vehicle and knowing Slade, the truck would be booby-trapped so that the explosives would go off if it stopped. Not good. 'Ha Ha! Just like old times, except this time Saskia isn't here to help out.' Taunted the robot. 'Don't you ever talk to me about Saskia' replied Eyclone as he stood up and took up a fighting stance. The Slade-bot charged at Eyclone this time, rather then meeting the charge, Eyclone backed off moving further and further down the length of the truck. He stopped a few feet short of the end. Slade was still bearing down on him, when it got close enough; it swung out with its left fist, trying to knock Eyclone off the truck. But Eyclone grabbed his hand in mid punch, rolled onto his back, flipping Slade over him and grabbed at the C4, tearing it away from the electric detonators. The Slade bot flew over the back of the truck and smashed into the road, half a second later a police car, braking heavily ran it over, leaving only a man sized piece of crumpled metal on the road.

'Now for the driver.' Eyclone said to himself.

Moving carefully to the front of the trailer, his every move highlighted by the police helicopter above, Eyclone reached the end the gap between truck and tailer. If he jumped there would be a fir chance of not making, but if used his mist-form power, at these speeds the winds blowing against him would make it difficult for him to reform on the other side. Take several steps back, Eyclone ran at the gap and leapt. Sliding through the air, he kept his eyes focused on the target and tried not to think about the results of missing and hitting the road at 88 miles an hour. When he landed on the cab roof, he grunted with the effort, in his head he was relieved that he'd grunted on landing, instead the alternative; "Splat!" Moving to the driver's side, he prepared himself for a simple manoeuvre; open the door, dive in feet first, use your feet to push the driver back, disconnect his seat belt and shove him over to the passenger side, the advantage here was that with no door to stop the driver, he'd fall out of the cab, the results could be messy, but in Eyclone's mind I you worked for Slade, you deserved what you got.

Eyclone enacted that plan and it was all nice and smooth till it came to pushing the driver away from the wheel. The driver happened to be a second Slade-bot.


	4. Prologue Boom!

_A Special thanks to anbody who has read this, If you Have Please Review I really want some feedback,and if you don't I probably won't end up finishing this Piece so please respond, even if it's to say: 'Well that Sucks!'_

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Legacy of Slade prologue part 4 "Boom!"**'Surprised, you should have anticipated this. I taught that, "Expect the Unexpected, and always be ready to remove it."' It taunted in a sarcastic voice, before punching Eyclone in the chest. Eyclone fell out of the cab of the truck, his hands reached out and grabbed the only thing within reach, the door and thus preserved himself from a nasty splat. The door flapped in and out, the forces of physics seemed to be determined to throw Eyclone off, and the almost blinding light from the police helicopter wasn't helpful either. The Slade bot driving the truck, opened a panel on the dashboard, and pressed several keys and a digital voice said "Steel City CBD. Confirm destination?' The Android was reaching for the touch screen, realising what the intentions of the robot criminals, Eyclone swung the door hard at the cab. As the door closed the distance, Eyclone realised his grip, his inertia carrying him into the cab and closing the door behind and ramming him into robot, just after it had pressed the "Yes" button onscreen. The robot started laughing and it waved its hand to the rear of the cab behind the seats. Sitting on the ground was a device with an LED countdown; it was a long cylinder and looked very much like a bomb in protective casing. Given his current situation and previous experience of such devices, he knew it would be a highly explosive bomb, with multiple triggers, automated channel jumping for remote detonators, standard time countdown, hardened casing with pockets of metal pellets for extra shrapnel and quite likely backup radio receivers and blasting caps to ensure that if the primary components fail, the bomb still detonates.

The android swung hard at Eyclone's face, Eyclone countered the blow and landed one of his own on the faceplate cracking it across the single eye. Despite being a robot the Slade duplicate still reached for its eye, as if to prevent it from falling out, Eyclone took advantage of this and swung again, even harder. The blow smacked into the chest forming another crack, the blow almost pushed the doppelganger out of the cab, Eyclone followed up with right hook and the robot fell from the truck. The metal segments that comprised its exoskeleton scraped on the roadway, sparks flying everywhere, fortunately this robot did not have a bomb built in which meant it didn't explode when a police cruiser struck its head.

Eyclone breathed a sigh of relief, 'Eyclone two, evil robot Slades zero' gloated Eyclone. 'Now to the bomb.' He said. Behind the truck a red, white and black streak sped up along side and jumped into the cab. It was Maus and Minos of Titans East, Spanish-speaking twins with the power to move REALLY fast, as long as they were touching. Maus opened his right hand, the hand that wasn't holding Minos' wrist, inside there seemed to be a small girl dressed like a bee. The bee girl was Bumble Bee leader of Titans East. She drew her pair of stingers and started blasting at Eyclone, while Eyclone tried to disengage or at least change the target destination of the Auto-driver. 'Pull the truck over and we won't hurt a you as much.' Ordered the super heroine. 'Umm you might not want to do that…' said Eyclone. 'If you pull over now, I promise the cops will protect you from Slade.' Bumble Bee said. 'All you gotta' do is pull over and tell us what he's up to.' It clicked in Eyclone's mind, she thinks I'm working for that scumbag; she probably thinks he's alive. 'First things first, titan. I don't work for Slade, in fact I was the one who sent you that tip about the Hive, second I guess you found the android in the rubble?' Eyclone said through gritted teeth s he attempted to avoid a police roadblock, with both Maus and Minos poking him and pulling at his coat. Bumble Bee nodded, 'That was one of many I've been hunting them for weeks now, This truck was being driven to the city centre with that bomb set to go off, and the 40 tonnes of Liquid oxy' in the back goes up as well. Furthermore, I think this bomb is wired to the truck, so that if the truck stops it'll detonate, so it looks like you guys are stuck here.' He said, swerving widely into the oncoming lane to avoid another roadblock. 'Would you mind releasing me and, if your so speedy, could you acquire a bomb disposal kit from the cops? I seem to have forgotten mine.' Eyclone asked the Spanish speaking speedsters. They shrugged and looked at Bumble Bee, she nodded and they grabbed hands and took off out of the truck, a red and black blur marking their departure. 'So do you know how to disarm this bomb?' Bumble Bee enquired. 'Probably, I've had extensive training in many fields, electronics amongst them.' He answered. 'You take the wheel.' He said, switching places with the super-hero, so that he could focus on disarming the bomb. Bumble Bee took the wheel and drew her communicator, she opened up a channel to the police, identifying herself and asking for them to clear a route to the airport. Eyclone got down on both knees so he could examine the bomb properly. A Voooom noise was discernable, as if out of no where Maus and Minos appeared holding a toolbox. 'You couldn't find any actually disarmament gear could you?' Eyclone asked, taking the toolbox out of their hands. 'At least this has wire cutters, screwdrivers and what appears to be an old tuna sandwich.' Looking closer at he commented 'A tuna sandwich that appears have some form of evolving life in it.' Raising it over his head, he hurled it out of the cab onto the highway.

Rarkon waved his spear in the air. 'Today my brothers! We the grey and round mould people of the crust shall cast off the shackles of our green thin fungus oppressors! We shall attack their strongholds in the upper butter layer and we shall be victorious!' he yelled at the assembled crowd. They respond with a resonating cheer. This is what being a leader is all about, this he felt with all four cells of his body, being adored by the people and leading such brave multi-cellular organisms in a just cause. On his left was one of the great chasms that lead down to the lower depths of the tuna, and if you believed the old tales, the bottom piece of bread. Moving around the sides of the chasm he could see hundreds of fungus soldiers advancing. Raising his spear, Rarkon pointed at the hated enemy, no words were needed his fellow bacterium charged the hated foe. The were only steps from contact on the front lines when the universe for Rarkon and all the others went "SQUISH!"

Steel City Police Officers Joseph Smith and Raymond Woods were charged with providing escort to a truck loaded with explosives. 'You know what this is probably some goddamn hoax.' Said Smith, Raymond nodded, suddenly something small, square and pale flew at their car, dropped out of sight and then a squish noise came from the front right tyre. "What was that?" asked Smith. 'Shut up keep driving! Now if the black man was driving we would've avoided what ever the hell that thing was.' Woods replied.

The bomb had most of it's casing off, inside a huge labyrinth of wires filled up ever inch. In the centre Eyclone could make out some form of plastic explosive. He didn't recognise the colour nor the consistency, which told him that it was probably a completely synthetic composition, that had been invented recently and was probably a newer version of Semtex, even more undetectable and far more powerful. In and around the near omnipotent gel were several charge emitters, if so much as a tiny electrical spark made contact with gel, BOOM would be the only result.

'Nearly at the airport, Aqualad and Speedy are helping the fire-fighters set up.' Bumble Bee yelled over the noise of the engine, ever since he'd let her drive he'd noticed a sudden jump in the speeds, as previously the twins didn't need to tie themselves down in the truck cab. Roaring off the highway and onto a diversion ramp, blocking off all the side roads were police cruisers with the officers waving them on. When the thundering, unstoppable mass that was the truck, hit the tarmac, Bumble Bee sighed with relief, not just for the safety of the wide spaces, but also that all the planes had either taken off or moved to the other side of the airport. 'What do I do now?' She yelled back to Eyclone. 'Just keep driving in circles, but not too fast, this thing rolls or, crashes it won't matter if the bombs disarmed, I'm surprised that the Liquid oxygen in the back didn't go off when we hit the off ramp!' he told her.

The bomb was pretty complex, even for Eyclone who'd made these kind of weapons. Reaching around with the magnifying glass, he spotted the bomb's only weak point, a single power source. Now given Eyclone's previous experience with these kind of weapons, he knew that no self-respecting bomb technician would not make a smart bomb with a single power supply, but so far he hadn't found anything. 'The good news is that I think I can cut the power source. The bad news is that only an idiot would make a bomb with one power source!' He yelled to the titan behind the wheel. 'Cut it!' was Bumble Bee's reply. 'First I need some things done, you two fast guys. Get out of the truck and don't stop until your well clear of the blast zone.' Maus and Minos did as he asked. 'Before I do this, I wanna know. What's your name?' he asked Bumble Bee. 'Bumble Bee. Why you asking? Hey what's your name?' she asked him back. 'Eyclone's the name and I'd rather know the name of someone who's about to die alongside me if I screw up. Any way do you trust me Bumble Bee?' he replied 'In this kind of situation, Yes.' Was her answer. Eyclone got up off his knees and stood behind her seat. 'Sorry Bumble Bee.' He said in a sad voice, Bumble Bee only had enough time for her expression to change to surprise, before Eyclone's fist laid her out cold. Eyclone put the tool box on the accelerator pedal. The truck immeadiately pushed forward with renewed speed, along a runway, quickly shortening the distance to the end of the runway where a small section of raised lights marked it out in the night. Eyclone lifted Bumble Bee out of her seat and carried her one handed to where the bomb squat in the cab. 'If I'm wrong she is gonna be pissed.' He said, before reaching down with the wire cutters, positioning them on the power cable, and with a final grunt of effort squeezed.

The LED clock on the front went black. Eyclone sighed. The bomb was dead. Suddenly a beeping noise emanated from the explosive gel, a little mechanical arm extended put of the putty with a small digital clock, Eyclone knew where the backup power source was now. But that wasn't the part that made his blood run cold. The counter was measuring milliseconds, it displayed "5000" which meant he had five seconds to get out. 'Ahh crap.' He said. Wrapping his arms around Bumble Bee, he changed himself and Bumble Bee into a single cloud, which exited the cab at the moment the count down displayed "0007". The Bumble Bee/Eyclone cloud was ten feet from the truck when:

**BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM!**

Aqualad was busy helping the fire crews; his power to control water was making sure the firemen's hoses didn't miss the blaze. Maus and Minos were checking the perimeter for Bumble Bee and the mysterious boy. The twins sped back to him, 'Seen anything?' he enquired, they both shook their heads. Suddenly a cloud of smoke drifted over to him. Speedy felt he was hallucinating, when a voice from the smoke said 'She's not dead.' A figure suddenly appeared, wearing a grey coat, patched up trousers and a blank expression, he placed the limp Bumble Bee on the ground. And then simply started walking for the fence line. 'Hey you! I w ant some answers! Who are you?' Speedy yelled as he drew his bow, notching an arrow designed to stun the target and wrap them in coils. He aimed at the lonely figure walking away. He fired, confident that the boy wouldn't know what hit him. Eyclone heard the arrow be notched and the bow being drawn, he even heard the swish of the string being released and physics taking over, which is why Speedy almost fainted when Eyclone back flipped into the air before the arrow could hit him and bind him. Slowly turning in mid air Eyclone reached out with his left hand and focused. He hadn't used this power in ages, it was strong, it was capable of blasting his targets with powerful bolts, draining energy from the surroundings, and equally capable of projecting that energy at an unfortunate target. The only reason he hated to even think about were the memories linked to it. Memories of his hated father, his loving and deceased mother, his now disposed of brothers and sisters, and the only sibling who'd shown kindness. He was pretty sure Saskia was still alive somewhere and understood his reasons for almost killing her. The alternative had been to kill her outright, the only sibling who'd not gained immense satisfaction from pummelling him everyday of his childhood. He would have vengeance. Almost flooded with the memories he focused the energy within him and unleashed a single bolt of white lightning, temporarily suspending himself and the arrow in mid-air for a split second. The arrow exploded and thanks to the quick jaunt down his memory lane, Eyclone landed poorly.

Speedy didn't know what to say. Someone who didn't even see him fire had not only dodged his arrow, He'd been able to blast it with some form of energy or lightning bolt. Thing boy landed roughly turned to face Speedy, winked and then disappeared in a puff of smoke. Bumble Bee woke up with a yell 'Whhhaaat? Ohh, what just happened. The truck blew up didn't it guys?' she said while looking at the wreck in the middle of the runway, there no fires outside, but the city's fire-fighters were holding back in case of unexploded barrels of Liquid oxygen. Speedy, Minos and Maus all nodded. 'So where did Eyclone go?' she asked as she pulled herself to her feet. 'Just disappeared, I tried to stop him but he just turned into smoke.' Said Speedy, leaning on his bow.

Back in Steel City, a dark cloud sped along and stopped on the roof of an apartment building. It wasn't in the up side of town, and technically the building was supposed to have no occupants. Eyclone opened the door on the roof and descended the stairs until he reached a poorly lit corridor, walking along to the corner of the building, Eyclone filtered through his many pockets for keys, upon finding them he tried them in the lock. None worked, so with a shrug Eyclone's right foot connected with the door several times, at high speed. Inside was a drab apartment, by looking at it you could tell that whoever lived here didn't own much our needed much. Walking over to the fridge Eyclone looked inside to find only a bottle of coke, some wrapped up sandwiches he'd made himself and a drink bottle filled with clean water. Eyclone grabbed the coke and sauntered over to the bathroom, opening the mirror cabinet, Eyclone removed his tooth brush, his tooth paste and a half full bottle of mouth wash, he wanted to rest, but he'd already planned out tonight and so far it might not be completely working, but he was still on schedule, He had a plane ride in three hours. Opening a bottle of aspirin, he took two tablets for the aching headache, he'd had since either one of the Slade-bots blows. He wasn't sure which. Screwing the cap on, he downed the two pills and then necked the coke. After taking the pills and checking the shelves for anything else of his, he closed the door and looked at his reflection, it had been almost eleven months since the he'd first encountered the decoys, He knew what that meant, it meant that Slade was dead and that the androids were working on project Lazarus II. Then he'd just been a kid, living by his own rules, he'd stolen to survive, but not like most people in his position, no with his talents, mugging and pick pocketing was practically self-insulting. Then it had attacked him, he found out that the androids were active and purposefulness had returned. A brain wave had come to him, why keep committing crimes, that's what he'd wanted, why not fight crime and fight him. And so the hunt that had brought him to this very moment in time, this very place in space. He was tired, it was hard taking down an evil conspiracy of super androids, and no so close to the end he felt so very tired.

Then the caffeine hit him

. He could feel his mind sliding into focus, countering the effects of the drugs and the pain. He was able to think, to plan his moves, those of his enemies, neutrals and the world itself, for months ahead. Strategies and counter-strategies were easily designed and analysed inside his mind and once again he felt physically able. Mentally he was unsure, the use of his energy powers had shaken him, the last time had been against the first Slade-bot and that had almost resulted in the deaths of bystanders and that was unacceptable. He would prepare for his next trial, Jump City, home turf of the Teen Titans. There was a likely chance they'd imprison him for the stuff he'd done as either Slade's apprentice or by himself. He would need them if he was to stop the robots, but his training advised caution. Robin the leader of the Teen Titans would probably be his superior in martial arts, Cyborg was to advanced tech for him to be able to hack or neutralise. Raven knew more about the arcane arts that he wielded than he did. Starfire he knew nothing about, but from news footage she appeared to have great strength, flight and her own energy bolts. And finally Beastboy, his shape-shifting means that the green butterfly on his shoulder could become a massive dinosaur. Caution was defiantly called for.

He slung the stuff from the bathroom into a backpack that looked well travelled, took al kinds of things from around the apartment, spare shirts, a pair of trousers that were twin to the owns he wore and a few sheets, a pillow and a camping mattress last but not least a high powered laptop that had many features that don't get added in when you pay an extra one hundred dollars. Slinging the bag over his shoulder, he took one last look at the now abandoned apartment, before turning into a cloud and disappearing out an opened window, into the night sky and heading towards the airport, where the flights had just resumed, if a little late.

* * *

_To answer the most obvious question. Yes he will meet the Teen Titans in the next chapter and probably have the snot beaten out of him by Robin..._


	5. A Small World

**Chapter 1 A Small World**

**Incident minus 19 days 17 hours 1 minute**

Robin was engaging Slade in fisticuffs. Each blow was an exact equal to the blow received, both were equal, both pairs of arms were working like pistons. 'Have you grown so weak in my absence Robin?' taunted Slade. 'This is just a dream!' yelled Robin, at his combatant. 'If this is a dream, then Haaaaaawwwwooorrrkkk!' a loud snorting noise issued from the dream Slade, Robin woke up on the floor of his room. 'Haaaaaawwwwooorrrkkk!' There the noise was again. Robin couldn't breathe. 'Haaaaaawwwwooorrrkkk1' Robin realised that the noise was coming from his mouth.

His snores had woken him up and his mouth was completely dry, his lips were almost sealed apart from a small gap where his loud snores had issued from. He'd been obsessing again in his dream, the last time he'd been obsessing about Slade had almost resulted in his own death. Since then it had only been occasionally, in his dreams. But over the months since they'd never been more than once a week, but last week and this week…. He'd covered saying he'd been training up late, the others had believed the excuse, but Raven had been giving him suspicious looks every time he'd been asked by Starfire, BB or Cyborg. The Boy wonder rolled over and realised he'd been sleeping with his utility belt on, again.

Beast Boy was standing in the titan's living room, in his hands was the ultimate breakfast, two soybean buns, each filled with lettuce, cheese, tofu, tomato and carrot. Just as BB was about to take a huge bite out of one of the buns, the doors slid open and a girl in her mid teens drifted in. She wore a long dark blue cloak, with a hood. Her hair was purple and her eyes were a dark blue.

'Good Morning Raven!' Beast boy said with much energy and enthusiasm. Raven simply frowned and poured herself some tea.

'In what way can you possibly postulate that this morning is good from both our points of view? Or does that greeting mean that you wish to do the impossible, inflict upon me a good morning that features you?' Raven replied coldly, her gaze penetrating into Beast Boy's soul, stripping it, analysing and it judging it, unworthy of existence. Beat Boy shuddered.

'In case your wondering I didn't sleep well last night, as SOMEBODY was playing the Game Station until 3am.' Raven said, while levitating her cup of tea to softly in front of her.

'Wasn't me I didn't stay up the late, I went to bed before Cy.' Answered Beast Boy hastily, as if Raven had accused him of murder.

'I was gaming until Three A-M and I Feeeeeel Great, this morning!' boomed a voice from the doors. They both turned to see a third teenager, half his head was covered in metal plating and so was the rest of his body. He was a tall boy with the build of an athlete, and the mind of genius. He was Cyborg, technical expert for the Teen Titans and unofficial second in command. He was also addicted to video games and would often challenge Beast Boy to gruelling eight-hour marathons on the Game Station.

Cyborg strolled up to the kitchen bench and started preparing his meat laden breakfast, the perfect picture of a Teenager about to have a perfect day, Raven on the other hand was the exact opposite, disgruntled and wanting to get even for last night's irritation.

Slowly standing, she finished her tea and concentrated on BB's Vegetarian supreme breakfast. Jerking it with her telepathic power she almost made it splatter on Cyborg's back, but before this could happen Beast Boy jerked his hand back and pulled his lovingly made breakfast back to it's maker.

While the tug of war over beast boy's breakfast played out Cyborg was making his bacon filled, tomato sauce injected, egg burger. The doors to the room opened and Starfire walked in and stopped just inside the room, staring at the spectacle of beast Boy wrestling with his food. There was a gagging sound and Cyborg turned around to see BB choking, with half of one of his sandwiches sticking out of his mouth.

'Chew ya food for god's sake BB. C'mon let me help you.' Cyborg drew back one of his powerful arms and slammed Beast Boy hard on the back.

The next few seconds played out like a slow motion fight sequence.

The half digested breakfast roll emerged from Beast Boy's mouth at a high velocity, wheeling through the air; droplets of Beast Boy's saliva flew in all directions. The soybean bun sailed through the air, directly at Starfire. She dodged to her left and from behind her a voice said 'Morning Star.' The flying bun continued its flight until it crashed on impact with the owner of the voice. Soggy from its quick stint in the first stage of Beast Boy's digestive system, the Soy Bean bun filled with tomato, tofu, cheese, carrot and fresh lettuce splattered all over Robin the boy wonder's face.

Robin did something surprising in reply to the piece of partially eaten food hurled at his face, he turned his back on his friends, removed his mask which never removes, wipes hi face on his cape, before replacing the mask, albeit with a few food stains on the edging. His expression was grim, hard set, revealing nothing of what he was thinking.

Walking into the kitchen he poured a bowl of cereal, added the milk. Then he walked all the way over to the couch and started eating his breakfast, alone.

'Umm.. Sorry Robin.' Beast Boy offered.

'We didn't mean that man, it was a just a freak accident.' Cyborg said

'Like he said, we didn't intend it Robin.' Raven said.

Robin's body started to quiver, the other titans took a step back, Robin could be dangerous when he was angry. Robin put his cereal on the couch next to him, stood up on the couch, his face was as red as his shirt. He reached out with one finger quivering finger.

'Bwah Ha ha ha ha! Ha Hah Ha ha!' Robin laughed. 'You guys thought I was gonna' go crazy, you should've seen your faces!' Robin fell from the couch and rolled on the floor laughing, the other teen titans all breathed a sigh of relief.

'Dude, I'm the handsome funny guy who does pranks. Your supposed to be the determined angry leader guy.' Beast Boy said. Robin just shrugged, cleaned up his cereal, which had spilt and then headed to the training room.

**Meanwhile at Jump City International Airport**

The Boeing 767 hit the tarmac with a thud. The wheels screeched as the brakes tried to slow the speeding hulk of metal. The plane reached the terminal gates, and the passengers were disgorged, like vomit from a person who's just mixed chocolate, vanilla, prune and brussel sprout flavoured ice cream.

Emerging from the gate was a the only kid who didn't have his parents fussing over the luggage, or the climate, he had no parents at all. Walking past highly polished piece of metal Eyclone Stopped and checked his appearance. _Damn I'm so fricking Cool_ was his first thought, h liked the way the pair of sunglasses he'd picked up, completely reflected everything, looking into his reflection all he could see was that eternally stretching illusion. _Crap! They might have unloaded my luggage!. _Eyclone ran to the luggage carousel, almost three quarters of a mile away.

_Thirty minutes later_

Everyone else on the plane had grabbed his or her luggage and left. A teenage boy stood leaning against a pillar as the carousel spewed out more bags and briefcases. Eventually a man in a security guards uniform approached Eyclone. _Ok this might be bad, I'll just wait to see if he wants me to move along._

'Are you waiting for someone?'

'Yeah, He said he'd be late. So I'm kinda stuck here.'

'Ok then.' The guard walked off whistling a tune.

An hour and thirty minutes later. 

Training told him he should have moved on. But the fact that the data on the laptop was valuable, and the thirty grand in cash and the fact that the eighteen sets of false identities, complete with licences, social security numbers, credit cards, even a blockbuster membership card, were also in there made him stay. The guard returned.

'Is this your luggage?' he asked, holding up a Polaroid of his bag.

'Err yes officer.' _play it a little nervous like any normal person would_, deep down he was angry.

'Come this way, please' _Crap crap crap crap_!

The security guard lead him to a room with a two way mirror. Inside were two men in suits seated at a table, a third empty chair sat there. One was obviously a back up, you could easily mistake him for a shaved gorilla. The other was fit, same height as Eyclone and had really greasy hair and a comb over.

'Take a seat.'

'Do I get to keep it?'

'No.' said the shaved gorilla/big man

'It can talk. Can it ride a little bike on a track?'

Mr… Well we don't know who you are so I'll go with the name of this one here. So Mr. Dominic Friend, How did you acquire what appears to be quite a lot of pocket money, several sets of interesting cards, and a laptop which appears to be booby trapped. What I want to know I what's it all for?' The thug agent smiled, and cracked his knuckles.

'Well,.. I don't know your names, I'd assume you two to be Federal, probably not FBI, hell your probably just airport security wanting to crack me before the feds get here and your shot at glory is lost.'

'We are agents Denning and Mouggles of "The" FBI. And "We" will crack you.' Said the greasy man.

'Please remove your sunglasses Mr. Friend.'

Eyclone had been smiling up until this point but now his expression changed to show the anger lurking beneath.

'No.' he said flatly

'Please do as agent Denning asked' said the mountain that was Mouggles.

'How about I offer you agents here a deal. You give back my stuff, including the ID and you have my promise that you won't regret it.' Eyclone said.

'Are you threatening two FBI agents? While being recorded?' Denning said waving his hand to the mirror _Crap, Well you should've expected, not every kid has a ton of cash and a laptop with plastic explosives._

'No, to threaten is to suggest the possibility of negative consequences. I'm guaranteeing negative consequences.' The agents simply shrugged and opened their coats to reveal their side arms.

'Ooooooo! You've got gunsy wunsies! I'm so scaredy wheredy!' Eyclone taunted. He stood up and leaned over the table.

'This is the event horizon. We stop playing games, either we're going to swerve around the black hole, I walk outta' here with my stuff and an apology, or we plough on through to the centre of the black hole?'

'Sit Down Now!' commanded Mouggles.

'Looks like Black hole time!' said Eyclone gleefully. Both the agents raised their eyebrows in puzzlement.

Eyclone's first punch took Denning by surprise, throwing him backward out of his seat and onto the floor. Mouggles jumped up and drew his sidearm, firing at the place where Eyclone had been.

The reason why Eyclone wasn't hurt is that he seemed to disappear in a puff of smoke. In Mouggles' earplug the voice of the technician manning the recording equipment warned him.

'Behind you.' Mouggles was about to turn when a crippling blow hit his lower back.

'Bet they didn't teach how deal with something like me at Quantico. I guess I won't be seeing ya.' Eyclone said as he stepped over the two fallen agents. His luggage was probably in the room behind the screen. Making a flicking action at the window, a bolt of white lightning shot from his fingers, hit the window and spread throughout the window before finally dissipating leaving the glass with a thousand cracks. The glass fell into thousands of pieces, behind the screen several technicians scramble for an arms locker against the wall; Eyclone's stuff was on a glass table.

Before any of the technicians could get a gun, a black cloud barred their path.

'This is the part where you guys run screaming like little girls' A voice said emanating from the cloud.

One of the men reached for the gun cabinet through the cloud.

'Big Mistake.' Said the voice. The cloud disappeared for second and was replaced with Eyclone, performing a back flip with his right foot extended to kick the man's face. The FBI techie was sent flying backwards and Eyclone shifted back to his cloud state. This seemed to break the spell on the others and they all fled the room, out into the main terminal screaming as Eyclone had instructed.

Eyclone repacked his bag, and then he walked over to a computer console in the room. Beating up two FBI agents, carrying a ton of fake Ids and a laptop with some serious security features meant that they had probably recorded him since he got off the plane. Luckily the computer was linked into the security grid for the airport, it was simply a matter of erasing the DVDs with the footage, wiping the flight records, removing all the stuff about the interview and then temporarily disabling the cameras and other security systems.

_Piece of cake, I hope._

Walking out to the main terminal, Eyclone headed to the expansive car park. As he approached the automatic doors, a short bald man in a business suit, practically yelling into his mobile phone, pushed through the doors. Eyclone's first reaction was an ancient technique developed centuries ago by pickpockets and is considered one of the essential tactics that anybody who lives in the murky underworld of terrorism, international crime and espionage, learns.

Increasing his pace he accidentally bumps into the businessman/Lawyer and falls backwards. The man understandably insulted puts his hand over mouthpiece of the cell phone and starts ranting on about disrespectful youths, and how if he didn't have a flight to catch he'd sue Eyclone for every cent he'll ever own. Eyclone simply puts a scared expression on his face and resists the urge to roll his eyes at the angry and apparently wealthy lawyer. The lawyer finishes with spitting on the ground next to Eyclone before running into the terminal.

Eyclone pulls himself up from the floor dusts off his coat, grins sheepishly to the assembled crowd, before walking into the car park. Checking to see if anybody was watching, Eyclone puts his left hand into his pocket and withdraws a pair of car keys, with an Audi key chain.

_Score!_

Walking around in the car park he eventually finds the Audi car, a black Audi TT car.

_Score!_

Opening the trunk he sees three suitcases in the back. Opening the first he finds a large number of bills neatly stacked. Judging by the weight I'd say five million. _Any more and this would be way too heavy._

_Double Score!_

Opening the Suitcase, he finds exactly the same contents.

_Triple Score!_

Breathing heavily he slowly opens the third suitcase, his eyes closed just to make it a surprise.

_Crap!_

Inside the third case is, wrapped in several clear vacuum sealed bags, was 100 pure grade AAA+ Colombian Cocaine

_Crap Crap Crap Crap Crap Crap Crap Crap Crap!_

Eyclone drove into the Jump City CBD, keeping to the speed limit at all times. He visited several hotels of the finest standard and rented the finest or closest to, rooms available. Then he went to a subway station, approached the payphones, using a small trick he'd learnt involving a narrow piece of wire and some probing of the payphones, he dialled a number, for free of course, that he knew would come in handy.

'This is the Alenighlington Institute of Dream Interpretation. How my I help you?' the voice at the other said, in that grating tone of a bored secretary.

'My name is Eyclone. Give me Chang now.' he said down the phone.

'Sorry. But there are no Changs here, and you should learn some…' Eyclone hung up.

He moved to the next phone repeated the subtle manipulation and dialled the same phone number.

This is the Alenighleng, sorry I meant ling, ton Institute of Dream Interpretation. How may I help you?' the same grating tone poured out of the speaker.

'Chang Now!' he yelled down the phone.

I don't know what…' Eyclone hung up again.

Moving to the next phone he repeated the same technique and dialled again.

'This is the Alenigh Hey..' the voice said on the other side as the phone was removed from her.

'This is Chang, what do want?' demanded a man's voice with a slight oriental accent.  
'Chang.' Eyclone simply said down the receiver. In the background on the other end of the line Eyclone could hear some quiet swearing and angry exchanges.

'Ohh so sorry young sir, my secretary is new she didn't understand that calling my office directly and using names on a possibly tapped line was normal procedure…' He was about to continue but Eyclone cut in.

'Just shove it ok, I want stuff and you deal stuff. This is just like the old days, except that I won't pay using his old account. Ok.' Eyclone stated.

'Very good young sir, my condolences for your loss.' Chang replied.

'Shut up with all that sympathy crap, this is business.' Eyclone said hotly down the line.

'Sorry but these days people are expecting service with a smile, even if it is next-generation military hardware. I do feel you owe us an apology after our last meeting.'

'Does an extra ten grand count?'

'Yes it does. So what are you looking for?

'The usual gear for a clean job, flash bangs, chaff grenades, CS gas, filter mask as well, and I recently heard about a high density expansion foam designed for controlling riots. The only record I found of it was in Somalia, during the 1993 peacekeeping mission. I suppose you would've heard of it?'

'Ahh.. That, I do have several canisters of it, fired from a customised flame thrower. But as I recall the reason why it failed was because the rioters climbed the foam wall. How do you want to deploy it? Some form of escape aid, insta-wall for indoor environments?'

'Precisely, two hours, in the park. Payment in US 20s, acceptable?'

'Yes but I don't have the projector device, I suppose I could modify one of the new portable flamethrowers, no annoying back pack. all small and incorporated into the shape of standard assault rifle. It will take an extra two hours to retool it and for an extra fee of course…' Said Chang, always the salesman.

They spent the next few minutes haggling over the price.

Eyclone hung up and climbed the stairs to find the street almost deserted, except for a giant figure who looked like a child's sculpture of man, made out of concrete, and given the mentality of a cat whose just had its temperature taken the "other" way.

Cinderblock.

It is a small world isn't it… 

At that very moment a purple blur swooped down on the criminal/living pile of construction material. Green bolts of energy slammed into him. A red bike ridden pulled up beside the giant and Robin the Boy wonder jumped out.

Two frozen discs, a few blasts from a sonic cannon, some lucky punches from an angry gorilla and several levitating objects later.

The police had just arrived to take custody of Cinderblock. Robin was staying close, making sure that the criminal was secure. Cyborg was in the T-Car revving the engine as signal that he had other plans. Raven sat in the T-car, quietly reading a book she'd brought along.

Starfire was gravitating to and from Robin's side and a display of new dresses in a shop window. Beastboy was walking back to the group eating a Tofu burger, a chap take away joint on the other side of the road sold them, and beast boy was digging into his with great enthusiasm.

BB and Starfire climbed into the T-car and Cyborg gunned the engine, before powering off back to Titan's Tower. Robin was about to speed o on his R-cycle when hey briefly made eye contact with Eyclone. Eyclone's instincts told him to break eye contact and leave the area. He walked out of the stair way and casually strode off in the direction of a convenient alley. Looking over his shoulder he saw the boy wonder, still looking at him, their eyes locked. _Crap better get outta' here. _Eyclone turned forward and sprinted to the alley, just before he ducked out of view he saw Robin approach. _Too fast now he's definitely noticed me. _Running further into the alley Eyclone sees a wooden fence and some trash cans to the side. Instead of following the conventional tactic of jumping the fence Eyclone just cloud formed through it and reformed on the other side without breaking the pace.

Robin sprinted to the alley where the boy had just ran to. There was something about the boy. How'd calmly stayed on the stairs of the subway station instead of fleeing, how he hadn't moved through out the battle with Cinderblock, and then that staring at Robin and the titans. He was probably some fan, but when he'd fled into the alley Robin's instincts told him something was very different about him.

The alley itself was quite dark and gloomy, every surface had some form of grime or staining. Ahead of him was a wooden fence, footsteps echoing off the walls slowly fading away, Robin picked up his pace. Drawing his Bo-staff he held it like a pole vaulter and vaulted over the fence, retracting it just as he was about completely cross the barricade.

Hitting the concrete with a thud Robin resumed his pursuit of the boy. The footsteps ahead stopped and then resumed Robin ran round the corner and saw the boy running down another alley, this one leading to the main street. The boy reached the end and paused for a second to face Robin. The sun behind illuminated his figure, making him look taller and more imposing. _Slade _The thought just popped into Robin's head, but no this was just some kid.

The boy then turned the corner and was out of sight. Robin approached the corner and looked both ways down the street but the boy was nowhere to be seen. Turning around to walk back to his R-cycle Robin walked straight into the boy.

He was taller then Robin, had brown eyes and black hair with bright blonde streaks through it. He wore a dark coloured coat, camo pants and black sneakers. Hi shirt was black and looked well worn.

'Why are you following me?' the boy snapped

'Well I..' Robin managed

'Leave me alone. I'm not some crazy psycho am I?' the boy continued

Robin was stunned, how could this kid sneak up on him like this?

'Sorry about chasing you and…' Robin started

'You should be.' The boy cut in.

With that he elbowed past Robin and walked out into the street. Robin looked out trying to see where he went. Just like before he was nowhere to be seen. Up and down the straight, there were hardly an people the only things close to Robin were two small children playing with a tennis ball and a thick cloud of steam coming from a vent in the building on Robin's left. Robin simply shrugged and walked back to his bike.

A part of the steam cloud from the vent detached itself from the gas cloud and moved over to a nearby roof where it was suddenly replaced with Eyclone. 'Sorry about that but can't have you knowing about me yet.' He said aloud. 'Now where is this park?' He asked no one in particular.


	6. A Walk In The Park

Chapter 2 A Walk In The Park

Eyclone leaned against the hood of his newly acquired Audi TT. The very last rays of the sun were still being reflected off the clouds even though the sun had been down for ten minutes.

He'd dealt with the case of Cocaine by handing it to a police officer and then walking around a corner and cloud forming before the cop asked him about the case.

Chang's late, wait Chang's never been late… 

A limousine pulled up in the nearly empty parking lot. The only other car seemed to be parked close to the exit and was rocking up and down. Eyclone ignored this. _C'mon, Hotel rooms are more private then the park_

The Limo parked on the far side. Eyclone stood up straight, opened the boot with the remote and pulled out one of the cash "prizes" he'd "won" with the car. Out of the Limo stepped two of Chang's bodyguards carrying metal boxes. The man himself emerged slowly with all the calmness; well Eyclone hadn't seen anyone so calm before…

'I apologise for my lateness, but the modifications proved to be quite fiddly. It's all here though.' Said Chang

Both parties walked to the exact middle distance between the two cars. Eyclone set the case on the ground and opened it revealing the money. Chang's bodyguards opened the cases. One contained all the non-lethal weapons he'd ordered, including the foam squirter. The other case opened to reveal a black body glove with several armoured segments over vital regions, the joints spinal cord and chest.

'What's with the suit?' Eyclone enquired.

'Something one of our mutual friends had made for you, in anticipation of you becoming as his partner.' Chang replied 'It's quite protective capable of resisting bullets of .38 calibre and below. But unfortunately it was never fully tested…' Chang trailed off.

'Why?' Eyclone asked, suspicions running through his mind.

'Because its custom, one size for one apprentice. The requirements for its construction are so rare that only Slade or the government could afford it.' Chang said with an air of pride. 'Although the US Army have been developing it for several years, they didn't have a scientist like myself working on it. They want cheap mass production, but I cannot stoop so low as to insult my crafted quality products, as you well know.'

'Ok I'll take it, but if this is a trap, I will come after you and make you regret the day you were born Chang.' Eyclone said with an expression stating that he would really like to do what ever it was to Chang right now. With that Chang walked over to the suitcase full of cash and slowly began examining notes at random. Eyclone did the same to the body suit and the other devices.

'This seems to be in order. It's been a pleasure doing business with you Mr. Chang' said Eyclone

'Likewise Mr. Eyclone. Remember the rules still apply.' Said Chang

'I don't know anything, who is this guy, if you don't release my lawyer will see to you….' Eyclone replied

'Exactly Mr. Eyclone. Exactly.' Said Chang. With that both parties carried their newly acquired goods back to their cars.

Eyclone popped the trunk of the sports car and it put both the cases in. as we was about to slam the lid down Eyclone stopped and opened the case containing the body armour. Looking at the wonderful invention that had been made for him a few years back, Eyclone slung it over his shoulder and slammed the trunk shut. A nearby public restroom will be an adequate change room.

Eyclone stripped and for the first time in a week checked the injuries his body had suffered. The majority were just cuts or bruises, nothing serious. Looking in the mirror he found a new zit forming on the left side of his jaw.

'Little bastard. I'll end you.' He said as he fulfilled his promise, squeezing the pimple until the pus came out.

Eyclone resumed the examination of his body. Wrapped around his chest, back, upper arms, and upper thighs were thick bandages made of a synthetic material. He unwound the one encasing his right upper arm. Underneath, well underneath was nothing, a few scars that had faded but nothing that would catch the eye.

Eyclone sighed with relief, it wasn't showing.

Repeating the procedure with the other bandages he was unchanging, no marks, a sigh, no marks, and a sigh.

Realizing where he was Eyclone considered getting dressed again. _Those stains on the wall suggest that who ever made them probably wouldn't be worried about anything now, except for maybe the worms eating his feet…_

Eyclone rewrapped the bandages on his person and slid into the bodysuit.

Meanwhile at a Pizza Parlour Nearby 

'I'm telling you Tofu violates the very nature of a pizza!' said Cyborg between mouthfuls of pizza.

'Dude your eating animals and your saying I'm stuffing up a pizza!' Beast Boy shot back hotly.

'At least its cause your brain to go retarded!'

'At least I my parents didn't screw me up and make me a retard!' Beast Boy replied, hitting a soft spot, he instantly regretted what he had said.

'What you say about my parents!' Roared Cyborg.

'Calm down, calm down. I don't want you guys killing each other over toppings.' Robin said in effort to prevent any further conflict.

'Err..' Raven said squinting at the waiter's nametag. 'Guys I think Dougie here wants to take your order, before he gets flattened in the cross fire.'

'That will be two super ultramo sized pizzas one vegetarian with Tofu and one Deluxe Meat lovers with extra meat right...' he said nervously, being one of those nerdy guys who faint if they make eye contact with a girl. Raven wasn't making it easier with her hollow stare.

'I will have a pizza of the third size covered in Mustard and this Pasta of Rave and Eolli, no?' said Starfire with that cute naïve expression of hers. 'Ok…' said Dougie now quite unnerved by the group of teenaged superheroes and their strange tastes in food.

'I'll just have a large, with the lot.' Said Robin.

'A small Hawaiian.' Raven said in her deadpan voice. Dougie scuttled away with the unusual order.

Robin lounged in his chair. Today had been quiet, except for Cinderblock and that boy everything was just, well dull. Not that dull was a bad thing, but before Slade's death, dull usually meant that Slade was close to achieving his goal to control Jump City. Slade was dead now, but that didn't stop the strange feeling he got when he woke up, or that gut feeling he got when strange things happened and the things smelt like Slade. _Must be getting paranoid…_

The communicator trilled.

'Trouble!' yelled Robin as he flipped open the communicator. 'Cinderblock escaped, he's been spotted in the park!'

The titans jumped out of their chairs.

'Titans Go!'

The T-Car sped through the streets of Jump City. Cyborg swerved to avoid the traffic and took a shortcut through an alley.

'Nearly there people, just hold on tight!' yelled Cyborg over the super turbo-charged engine.

In the back Beast Boy had transformed into an octopus and had wrapped his arms around anything in reach, and much to Raven's annoyance this included her head.

Cyborg gunned the engine and the T-Car rocketed out of the alley.

Pulling up at Jump City Park they found several police cruisers that had encountered Cinderblock, the officers were keeping low in a ditch. They waved the T-car on ahead. Speeding down the road they found hastily made roadblock with a few other police cars. Beyond that, the figure of Cinderblock holding a cop car in each hand the lights from other cars illuminated his armoured bulk.

Cyborg screeched the car to a halt.

The Titans piled out. Cinderblock tried to swat a figure in a black skin suit. It leapt to the side avoiding a fender to the head.

The Titans charged Cinderblock. Cyborg's sonic cannon blasted the side of the villain's head.

'Why don't you pick on someone actually capable of fighting back?' Cyborg called.

Cinderblock turned back to the boy who kept moving, sometimes getting close and delivering a punch or kick, or keeping back and zapping the criminal with bolts of white lightning.

One particular bright energy bolt illuminated the boy. Robin recognised instantly it was the same boy from earlier.

The boy looked back and made eye contact with the titan. Cinderblock raised both of the cars above his head and tried to swipe at a purple blur that was unleashing green energy at his concrete hide.

Two rubbish bins floated in the air at Cinderblock, but Cinderblock just batted them away like flies.

He roared again, it was almost deafening. Beast Boy morphed back to human from his rhino form covering his ears.

Cinderblock raised both the cars and swung as hard as he could at the boy who was also covering his ears.

'NOOOOO!' Screamed Robin.

The two cars collided with a thunderous noise; it was a hybrid of bang and crash. The sheer volume hurt the titans eardrums.

And where the mysterious boy had stood, was a pile of bent metal.

But it wasn't over…

Howling even louder, Cinderblock pummelled his fists, again and again.

Each blow crushed the automobiles further and further into the dirt.

Cinderblock crouched and sprang on to the pile, jumping up and down, until the twisted metal was just a heavily compacted crater.

The Titans stood there stunned.

Who ever the boy had been he'd just been hit with the full violence of Cinderblock's rage.

We've locked him up, beaten him and made him pay for his crimes, but he's never been so enraged with us. So why that boy?

'Titans, he's just crushed a civilian. We can't let him escape now!' Robin called. 'Raven, move the wreckage. In the event of him surviving that he'll be critical. The rest of us, we 're going to take Cinderblock down now!' Robin yelled.


	7. New Friends

Sorry about the delay, numerous factors, organisations and individuals will be facing my Wrath for this delay...

* * *

Chapter 3 New Friends 

Robin charged at Cinderblock, his Bo-staff out in front of him. When he was within Cinderblock's reached he dug it into the ground and performed a pole-vault kick into the criminals face.

Cinderblock backed off and was hit by barrage of sonic cannon beams and star bolts.

Raven walked over to the car wreckage.

'Azarath, Metrion Zinthos.' She chanted, the twisted metal rose out of the ground.

Raven looked into the bottom of the hole, expecting to find the mangled remnants of a teenager.

She gasped, the hole did not contain a corpse.

Her violet eyes looked at the cars.

If he'd been in there, there would've been no chance.

Anger started to pour into Raven's mind. Her figure began to grow. The cloak grew as well. Her eyes closed, and when they reopened, there were four eyes and they were red…

'You shall pay for this.' She said, in a voice that didn't sound like it come from a girl in her teens.

Black tendrils extended from under the cloak and started taking the metal heap.

Starfire's eye-lasers left two parallel burn trails across Cinderblock's chest.

Cinderblock was lying on his back, Cyborg walked over to the super villain's head.

Holding his sonic cannon to Cinderblock's face he said 'You've crossed the line. Now there is no mercy…' Cyborg's tone of voice was cold and mechanical.

The were was a high pitched whine as the sonic cannon powered up to max, a clang as Cinderblock's hand back slapped Cyborg and a thud as Cyborg hit the ground several yards away.

In the darkness above Cinderblock, Robin saw a dark coloured figure appear and fall to earth.

The person landed on Cinderblock's head. He steadied himself and punched hard into the top of the criminal's head. Robin saw it was the boy again.

'Dude, how did he survive that?' said Beast boy, pulling himself out of pond that a rhinoceros had previously been hurled into.

The blow stunned the concrete giant and it stopped moving. Raising his right hand the boy's expression changed to pure rage.

White light started engulfing his upraised hand.

A ball of metal flew at Cinderblock's stomach, the impact pushed him back and broke the daze he'd been in. The titans turned to see Raven, in her angry form.

In each of the many tendrils was a ball of crushed metal, the size of basketball.

She was hurling them at the criminal.

'Raven! Stop! You'll hit him!' yelled Cyborg and Robin simultaneously.

But the ball of police cruiser parts was already flying at Cinderblock's head/ the boy.

Right before the ball hit the boy, just dissolved into some kind of cloud, Robin wasn't sure, but he understood how the boy had done the disappearing trick earlier.

'What the..?' said Beast Boy from behind Robin.

Raven in her daemonic form stopped suddenly in surprise, her sudden change to surprise rather than anger caused her to shrink back to her normal self. There were several thuds as the crushed balls of metal obeyed the laws of gravitational pull.

Eyclone reformed back in the same position, his hand still glowing white.

_Why can't they let me finish powering up and finish the stupid thug?_

Cinderblock's flailing arms managed to hit Eyclone and sent him tumbling to the ground.

Cinderblock raised his left foot for the finishing stomp, but Eyclone once again shifted to his cloud state and moved out of the way. Eyclone reformed behind Cinderblock and kicked the heel of the thug's right leg.

Eyclone dissolved again to dodge Cinderblock's attempt at a lower roundhouse kick.

The titans watched this seemingly one-sided fight. Cinderblock swinging as hard as he can at a boy who literally turned to smoke before his eyes, who happens to reform on Cinderblock's exposed side and delivers a blow.

'C'mon block-brains hit me you ponce!' yelled Eyclone.

'Grrrrrraaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!' Cinderblock roared.

An idea formed in Robin's head.

Robin charged the distracted Cinderblock, and leapt at his head, right when Cinderblock turned his head. With his big open mouth was facing him, Robin threw a fistful of his explosive discs into the cavernous mouth. The simultaneous explosions surprised the criminal, before knocking him out cold.

'You've got some smooth moves, I don't think I've ever seen someone turn themselves to mist,' Robin said.

The boy said nothing and avoided eye contact.

'Is this about before, I'm sorry. Look I was a little jumpy after that fight and you kinda looked suspicious, it doesn't matter now.' He continued.

'Whoa, you got some damn fine moves there kid. Wanna' join the Titans?' Cyborg said as the other titans crowded round the newcomer.

'Please forgive for what I am about to do. I mean you no harm, but I cannot be seen…' Eyclone said.

'Huh?' chorused the titans.

Eyclone became mist again and two objects dropped and hit the ground…

'My name is Eyclone, and I am so very sorry.' Said the cloud.

The two objects were cylinders, both had holes in them, one had a red stripe around the middle, the other had two blue stripes.

The blue cylinder started to glow, before it let out a deafening bang, and a blinding flash.

Shouts of surprise came form the police officers.

Starfire had tripped over, she was looking at Robin, his lips were moving but no sound was coming out.

Beast Boy had turned into a penguin from the sudden shock, albeit a rather deaf penguin.

'You guys alright!' shouted Cyborg, a thick red cloud had expanded out from where the other grenade had been, it enveloped the titans making it difficult to see.

In the distance a car could be heard, speeding away.

_Damn he got away! _Thought Robin. _Why did he do it? Who is he? All I have is a name, Eyclone, but that's all I'll need._

'The data gathering is complete sir.' Said one of the bodyguards.

'Excellent.' Said Chang, the glow of the screens illuminating one side of his face red.

'Shall I have the men gather the sensors?' the bodyguard asked.

'Of course! Do you want the Police to find out we set this up?' Chang snapped back.

'No sir, I'll do it right away sir.' The bodyguard replied.

Chang leaned forward and watched the replay of the fight in the park. _Well it appeared that the suit worked perfectly, he wouldn't know completely for sure though. It would've been dangerous to hide the sensors and a transmitter in the suit. Eyclone would have checked for that, and then the kid would've hunted down Chang and executed him, but why did he let the titans live? Could the former leader of the Slade 8 and Slade's first apprentice, be going soft? Those were questions Chang needed answers to if he was going to continue as a living, uncrippled human outside of prison._

Chang stood up and approached the doors to the truck.

'Leave here once the sensors are collected, I need to…contact someone privately.' He said to one of the several orderlies in the truck.

Chang then stepped out into the fresh evening air, and climbed into his black limousine.

'Back to the Lab.' He commanded the driver.

The titans were feeling down, they'd captured Cinderblock after he escaped from custody, but the appearance of that boy, Eyclone and his neutralization of the team in matter of seconds. That made them feel real down.

'Hey guys I heard there's a disco party on not far from here, the club gives us free entry, why don't we had over there and chill out?' Cyborg said has he navigated through the traffic in the T-car.

'No I need to, find something back at the tower…' Robin said.

'Ohh noo! You are not doing that "I must stop him before he attacks the city again" Robin.' Starfire said while doing a lame impersonation of her best friend.

'Although I hate those things, I'm inclined to agree, we don't need you to go paranoid and obsessed like you did with Slade.' Raven said in her levelheaded voice.

'Dude! Don't go all crazy, it's creepy and I always get my butt whipped when you do that.' BB added his voice to the pro-party side of the discussion.

'Ok' Robin ceded to the demands.

The club was filled with the dancing teenagers.

Starfire was on the dance floor surrounded by boys tying to keep up with her energetic moves.

BB was cruising, checking out the ladies, playing his moves slick and being turned down at every attempt.

Cyborg had been invited to guest DJ and was spinning out the beats.

Rae was hanging around in some dark corner somewhere, probably doing Goth things with other Goths, Robin didn't want to pry.

Robin strolled over to the bar and ordered a soda.

'That'll be $2.50.' said the bartender.

A long arm in coat sleeve reached over and dropped the coins on the bench.

'I'll pay for it.' came a gruff voice.

It belonged to man in a trench coat, he had a weathered face, with a long burn-like scar cutting diagonally from the left temple to the right side of the jaw.

'Who are you?' Robin asked.

'A person who wants the same thing as you do…' came the reply. 'We need to speak some where private, Mr. Grayson…' the stranger whispered Robin's real name.

'What do you want?' came Robin's reply, his tone was neutral, his expression would've won many poker games, but Robin kept his left hand close to the bird-a-rang on the left side of his belt…

'I've been ordered to pass on some information to you.' Came the mans reply, he was patting his pockets, looking for something…

'Ahh… here it is.' Said the man, he withdraw a wallet and flipped it open, inside was an identity card with the words FBI printed on it, it had a photo of the man, although missing the massive scar and a name; Jack O'Grady.

'Ok so now I understand who you are. Where do we go then?'

'Outside are two of my fellow agents. They have an incomplete dossier, the full one arrives tomorrow.'

'Ok' said Robin, the FBI agent walked over to one of the emergency exits, and stepped out into an alley behind the club.

'Robin, this is special agents John Denning,' O'Grady said waving his hand at greasy man in a similar trench coat, 'And Sean Mouggles.' He finished pointing at a very large man, wearing the same kind of trench coat, albeit much, much larger.

'Denning, the file.' Said O'Grady.

John nodded and held out a manila folder with "Confidential" stamped on it, the folder wasn't very full.

Robin opened it and looked at the five photographs and the sheet of paper inside.

'As you can see it's quite bare, but interesting. The full file will be in an office, Jump Towers suite 356 at 11:00am tomorrow.' O'Grady said.

'So far we are unaware of his real name. We have a long list of aliases and we know he as at least twice as many.' Denning said.

'Then there's the codenames, we list him under his first codename, its on the top of the sheet.' O'Grady added.

Robin moved a few of the photographs and looked at the sheet, it contained dates and names. And at the very top was 'Suspect File: 356F675J78K, Suspect Name: Eyclone."

'Why an office outside the bureau?' queried Robin

'Security. If our perps' got a whiff that we were tracing them… Bang, they'd be on the offensive. Our families would be targeted and anybody who entered that building would be threatened. Better to be restricted and unknown, than open and exposed.' O'Grady answered.

Robin flicked back to the photographs; one of them caught his eye…

It was very poor quality and was taken of two figures fleeing the aftermath of some kind of explosion…

One looked like the boy who'd them fight Cinderblock…

The other figure made Robin's blood run cold. The right side of the figures face was black; the left side was orange with a single eyehole…

'Where'd you get these photos?' Robin asked.

'We are part of a special taskforce set up to track down and punish the criminal known only as Slade. After Slade's death at the hands of your fallen comrade, our objectives changed to hunting down all of his lieutenants and those who had aided him in his crimes. This Eyclone was once a leader of a team called the Slade 8, from what we know, the Slade 8 was disbanded and all the other members were executed by Eyclone acting under Slade's orders. After that he continued to work for Slade, before an explosion ripped apart one of the lairs they were hiding in. After that we've never heard of them working together again.

'Hmm…' was all Robin said.

'We don't require any more of your time… Mr. Grayson' once again O'Grady whispered the real name of The Boy Wonder. With that the agents left, walking quietly further down the alley, until the shadows consumed their presence.

The FBI, that's the first I've heard of them actively pursuing Slade... They must be worried if they need my help with this criminal. Otherwise why else would the FBI pass on this kind of information..?

_This question unsettles me..._

Robin returned to the disco and joined Starfire on the dance floor.

They danced together, in unison, much the annoyance of several other boys who'd been watching Starfire all night with lusting eyes.

They were real close together, the lights changed to a darker hue and the DJ changed the music to a much slower rhythm. Robin became incredible self-conscious about his proximity to Star, about his arms around her waist and her arms around his neck.

Eyclone pulled his car into the parking lot of a Motel advertising self-contained units and cheapest rates for the first two hours. The women and some men in dark, seductive clothing were advertising another service which involved taking advantage of the establishments offer…

'I want a unit, bathroom, kitchen. All that crap.' Eyclone said to the fat bald guy manning the counter.

The warning sign claim that trespassers will be shot, survivors will be shot again didn't bother Eyclone, neither did the few used shotgun cartridges that lay on floor behind the desk.

'Lucky 13.' Said the man as he passed the key over, his right hand staying under the desk at all times. 'And pay if you use the mini bar. I check and if there ain't the cash then I'm gonna' get it one way or another… Heh heh he he!'

Eyclone nodded and left the man to watch a battered TV.

'Filthy pig.' He said under his breath.


End file.
